The first quarter finals were great fun.
DJOKOVIC – TSONGA 6-1 5-7 5-7 7-6 (6) 6-1
What a great match! What a great Nole! The match started in an ominous way withe the Serb winning the opener in 21 minutes 6-1. Then Tsonga, also helped by the home crowd, resurged to win the next 2 sets 7-5. It was trade mark Tsonga, jumping, dancing on the ball and putting all his energy in it. Nole looked lost. The 4th set was a real thriller with the Serb saving 4 match points showing incredible resiliance. The fact is that nowadays Nole has the recipe to win this kind of contexts, so he knows that if he can weather the storm… he will make it (remember last year semis in the US Open semis agaist Roger?).
So, after saving 4 match points when serving 5-6 down in the 4th set, Nole brought the set to the tiebreak. Here Nole conquered 2 set points on the 6-4 scoreline to waste both of them: 6 all. That was Tsonga’s melting point. The Frenchman wasted the next 2 points to completely disappear in the 5th set. Great effort from Nole!
“As a tennis player, this is what you live for,” said Djokovic. “This is what you practise for all these years, to be part of an incredible performance, incredible match encounter here in Roland Garros with the home players. I’m really glad that I could win today.”
Talking about his next match against Roger. “Last year we were part of a great match that went the distance, and he played incredibly well,” said Nole . “I thought I played on a very high level. I just hope we can have another good match for us and for the crowd to be a part of.”
FEDERER – DEL POTRO 3-6 6-7 (4) 6-2 6-0 6-3
Roger is not having a great tournament. He is not playing his best tennis to lose sets during his path with players that were never higher than the 79th ranking. Initially,the Swiss has been very unlucky with his draw, but then all the top players that were on his collision path were incredibly upset. So this was his first real test and he was failing it. Delpo won an easy first set to conquer the second at the tiebreak. Roger was not Roger and it seemed he was about to check out from the tournament. Then something went wrong in the Argentine’s camp: his knee. Delpo’s movements became slower and slower and Roger’s tennis strarted to go back to his usual levels. The Swiss Maestro won the next 2 sets in no time (55 minutes in aggregate) to get to the decider as the clear favourite. After saving a couple of break points in the opening game, the world no.3 won the 5th set 6-3.
“I thought it was very good conditions for him,” said Roger. “I knew it was going to be tough anyway. I have been struggling to find my rhythm. I did feel it in the first set, even though he was up two sets. I was finding a way back and starting to feel better. I was just trying to figure out how to play a guy who returns from so far back on a slow court. Do you try to serve through him? Which I tried; it didn’t work. Or do I try and move it around a bit? And that worked a bit better, but it was really in the mix up that I found success.
“The second set was a tough set for me to lose, but he played a really good breaker and got the better of me. But I was happy that the first two sets took some time, because I did favour myself once the match got longer. I’m very happy with the way I fought and started in the third set, fourth set, and even in the fifth set, where, obviously, it was the toughest, because that was his last chance and his resistance maybe was the strongest there.”
Roger may be not at his best, but he is always there!
Nole and Roger will play in the semis once again (last year it was Roger in forth sets to halt Nole’s incredible winning streak). Head to Head: 14-11 for Roger (3-2 for the Swiss on clay). Impossible to tell who is going to win this one.
Great stuff!
